Mass Effect: A Knights Tale
by Kaylen87
Summary: A Knights Tale is the first in a series featuring my SI who never played the games and ends up in the Mass Effect Universe. Orphaned at a young age and raised on the streets follow along as I go from white collar criminal to helping stop the Reapers. Starts about a year before ME1.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everybody,**

**This is my first time actually doing a serious piece of writing, at least in terms of wanting to post it for other people to read.**

**Hopefully this will be something a little different to the other SI's out there and that people read and enjoy it as much as I am writing it.**

**Any comments, questions and suggestions are welcome, other than that, thanks for reading **

**Standard Disclaimer: Mass Effect is the property of Bioware which is owned by EA, I sadly don't own any of them, the OC's however are mine.**

**Mass Effect: A Knight's Tale**

_BEGIN RECORDING…_

_I've never had a perfect life…or even a normal one really now that I think about it...but then again what's normal for one person can be completely abnormal to someone else so who knows right?_

_Still I can assure you that my life for whatever level of normalcy it might have been once is definitely not the same now, you see the reality I live in now is not the reality I was born in, but it's very similar…you know besides the aliens, those are new here but Earth is still Earth for the most part but I'm getting ahead of myself here._

_My name is Robert Knight and this both my life story, how I wound up in another universe and went from being a criminal to a hero as well as a first-hand account of every event surrounding the Reapers and the greatest battle in our galactic history since I was there on the front lines during the whole thing, but that's a long way away from now._

_My story begins on Earth back in February of 2012…_

**Chapter One: An Ordinary Day…**

It was another beautiful day in New York City and standing here on the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, gazing out across the cityscape as the sun shone bright in the sky, the view only helped to cement one of many nicknames the city has "The City so nice they named it twice."

New York is my home, my city and despite the fact I've seen this view countless times during my life I always fall in love with it again like I was seeing it for the first time and that's despite the crap life I've lived in it or maybe it's because of it…see I grew up on the streets, literally.

My mom was a hooker and my Dad…well I never knew him so who cares right? To her credit my mom wasn't one of those coke head whores who didn't give a damn about their kid, she was awesome. She conducted a lot of her business while I was at school and was always there for me in the morning when I left and there when I was left. I don't know what drove her into the world's oldest profession but I know she did to pay the bills, although sometimes it was tough.

I was six when she was killed and being a hooker the cops never gave it their full attention, just another whore most likely killed by a client they said, and with no other family I was put into a foster home, which was even worse than my life had been before. I finally escaped from that hell when I was twelve and lived on the streets, which I will admit wasn't easy, since the only skill I had at that time was drawing.

After a few weeks sleeping in alleyways and stealing food from vendors I was struggled without cash and tried my hand at pickpocketing, needless to say I failed and thought that I was screwed, instead the guy just smiled and offered to teach me how to do it for real.

The man's name was Ryan, at least that's what he told me and he was a con artist, one of the best in the city and took me under his wing, teaching me how to pickpocket and how to con. By the time I was sixteen I was as good as he was, I could pickpocket without anyone noticing and I could charm my way into or out of any situation. A lot of people think that running a con is hard and depending on what you're doing they can be, but the key thing you need is confidence. After all a con is essentially a lie and it takes confidence to stare someone in the eye and lie to them without revealing anything.

But let's not be stupid here, you can't pull off a con or even a simple pickpocket job on confidence alone, you need skill and one other thing…luck. And me I had confidence, I had skill and I had more than my fair share of luck…Ryan's luck however ran out during a con and wound up going to jail and I found myself on my own again, at least this time I had Ryan's apartment, some cash and the talents to increase my income, which I did via various white collar crimes and cons.

My luck eventually ran out though and a little after my 18th birthday I was caught trying to pawn off a stolen antique vase and spent the next year in jail, the joys of a first offence While I was inside I met a fellow conman named TJ. Now I was I minor league conman compared to this guy. He was in his early 40s and was more involved with the upper class areas of white collar crime, art theft, jewellery heists and so on.

He got out before me but told me to look him up when I got out, which I did down in the lower east side. Over the next few years TJ mentored me in the arts, how to spot forgeries in art and imperfections in jewellery, how to pick locks and crack the more modern security systems and how to forge artworks given my own artistic talent, we were a pretty good team. Although having to study art was by far the most boring aspect, still to be a true master of the craft you have to know what you're talking about.

Eventually our reputation grew to the point that we were being hired by the more rich and famous to…acquire various items, jewellery and paintings for the most part, it was a fun life for the most part, it was exciting, adventurous and it paid _really_ well. Which is where my story really begins, I was 24 at the time and it was the job that turned my life upside down...

It seemed like a simple job at the time break into the New York University and steal some artefact that had been uncovered on an archaeological dig, which was little odd I'll admit, especially since I'd done some research on it. From what I could tell it was an ordinary metal statue, granted it was a very old statue but a statue none the less. It didn't appear to be made by anybody well known or come from an historical point in history, it didn't even appear to have been owned by anybody famous it was just old, which could have value granted but I didn't see enough to warrant the huge price we were being paid to steal it, but who am I to judge a job's a job right?

I was the one who would be doing the actual stealing of the artefact, all I needed was a student ID, not the hardest thing in the world to do. An easy pickpocket and boom, one ID and TJ knew a hacker who could hack the university system and input my details into their system; all we needed to do was create an ID for me, all things we had done before over the years and before you knew it I was enrolled at NYU.

Now I have to admit compared to my life, university life was incredibly boring! I mean seriously, and if that was a preview of what a normal working life was like then I'll be happy to stick to my criminal life thank you very much, far more exciting.

I found out that the statue was being kept in one of the science labs for testing and scouted it out, there was always a campus guard on duty during the day as well as the person who discovered it as well as the lab techs, no way I was going to be able to steal it during the day, which meant doing it at night, not wanting to drag this out longer than necessary I snuck back onto campus that night to get a lay of the land. Luckily for me it seemed as though nobody was expecting anybody to want to steal the statue since it was left in the lab, sealed in a glass container.

I probably could have grabbed it then and there but I wanted to get the campus security patrol down so that I knew how much time I would have to get in, unlock the container and grab the statue then leave. They had two guards that patrolled the science wing, one keeping an eye on the security monitors and another that did the rounds, the one doing the rounds passed the lab where the statue was every half an hour, which should be more than enough time for me, all I needed to do then was figure out how to avoid the cameras, which wasn't going to be easy given the lack of cover and hiding places. The best way would probably be to hack the system and loop a video feed but that wasn't exactly a part of my skillset so TJ's friend would have to do that one.

It took us a few days to get everything setup but soon it was time. Sneaking into the university was pretty easy to do as was getting to the science labs, all I had to do was pick the lock on the lab door and open the container. Picking the lock was easy and soon I was standing over the glass container, looking at the statue.

It appeared to be a figure of some kind, maybe a person but it was hard to tell much more than that. It had been intricately sculpted though and was about 15 inches in height and made of metal. Its eyes were made of what looked to be dark blue jewels, which were probably the reason our employer wanted it stolen for, still for that to happen I needed to get it out of the case. A task I realised would be a little bit more difficult than I had first thought since the container was stored on a pressure pad, which no doubt was connected to an alarm system.

Now normally something like that is pretty easy to circumvent, much like in that Indiana Jones movie all you need to do is replace the item on the pad with something of equal weight, the only problem was I didn't know how much the thing weighed and even if I did I didn't have anything to replace it with.

My best hope was that the people working on this thing kept their notes locked in a desk in here which would hopefully give me an idea of what I'd need. I'd picked my way through six draws without finding them when my watch beeped, an indication that the guard would be back in this area in 5 minutes.

Cursing under my breath I left the lab and jogged down the corridor, slipping into one of the empty class rooms as I waited for the guard to pass and used the time to think about my options. The first would be to leave and try another night, the second would be to just grab the thing and make a run for it, not very stealthy but as long as I got away it would be good enough…although the fact the new kid arrived for a few days and then left just after the theft would be a little suspicious, plus I like to keep my activities clean, no deaths, no witnesses and no evidence.

However there was a third, slightly less risky option…I could always guess how much it weighed and grab a few random objects to place on the pedestal instead, and if that didn't work then just grab it and run. With a nod to myself I peeked over the desk I was hiding behind just in time to see the guard walk past the door and stood up, spending the next few minutes grabbing some books, beakers and other lab equipment before making my way back to the lab with the statue.

Taking a few deep breaths I decided to go with the books first, they were pretty thick science books which alone hopefully would be enough to counter the weight of the statue and it's container, even better would be if this was one of those pressure pads that wasn't configured to the exact weight of the statue, that way any weight that I replaced it with that was equal to or heavier than it would work, however if it was configured the other way then those books would set off the alarm anyway.

I made an on-the-fly decision to go with one book to begin with and if need be press down on it to add some pressure. With the first book in my right hand I took the glass container in my left and started sliding it gently across the pad, while sliding the book into the free space at the same time. My movements were painfully slow as I worked until I'd finally slid it off the pad without setting off the alarm.

And since I was now holding it in my hand could approximate its weight and smiled as I let go of the book, breathing a sigh of relief that the alarm had remained off. I placed the statue in the bag I had brought with me and gathered up the other things I had brought from the classroom and returned them to their rightful place and made my way to the exit.

I'd just managed to leave when the alarms in the University went off. With a chuckle I ran down a nearby alleyway to where I had stashed another bag and opened it, taking off the black hoodie, balaclava and gloves I had been wearing during my heist and replacing them with the New York Rangers jersey, baseball cap and long black leather coat that I'd put in there instead.

Freshly changed I calmly walked out of the alley and back onto the streets as numerous cop cars whizzed past on their way to the university as I casually blended in with the rest of the city. When I arrived back at my apartment I took the statue out of the bag and had a look at what I had just stolen, just to see what was so special about this thing.

I opened the glass canister and carefully removed the statue before rotating it in my hands, taking in every bit of detail. The figure was actually a really grotesque looking creature that I had never seen before and wondered how someone could have thought up the creature and then decided to carve a statue out of it.

Then there was the metal, which despite being at least a thousand years old according to reports was incredibly smooth, with only a few scratches on it, which made me think that maybe it was a fake, but as I ran my fingers over it I realised it didn't feel like any metal I had ever touched before which was odd, it was certainly cold enough to be metal but it didn't feel like metal, it was far too smooth and perfect.

Finally there were the dark blue gemstones that made up the eyes, they looked like sapphires only much more exquisite and I had seen some of the most exquisite jewellery known to exist during my short but illustrious career so far and none of them could even come close to whatever these things were. They were as dark as sapphire but within them seemed to be this swirling…something, it could have been a gas of some kind or a thin piece of glass or other reflective surface designed to reflect and contort the light to make a wispy pattern within the jewels. I had never seen or heard of anything like it before and yet clearly someone had because I was looking at it, no wonder somebody wanted it stolen, it must have been worth a fortune.

Shaking my head I placed the statue back in its glass container and placed it on the table, ready to be taken to TJ and handed off to our employer in the morning. After giving TJ a call and letting him know I'd retrieved the statue I grabbed a snack from the fridge and headed to the sofa to watch some TV.

I must have fallen asleep at some point because I woke up on my sofa a few hours later still dressed in the clothes I had put on in the alleyway and blinked as I looked at the shopping channel currently being shown on the screen. I turned off the TV and stood up figuring it would be best to clean my teeth and got to bed. I staggered into the bathroom and was about halfway through cleaning my teeth when I noticed a dark blue light seeping into the room from the hallway, which was strange since there wasn't anything in the hall that would cast a blue light.

I finished cleaning my teeth turned around to head into the hall when I realised that the blue light had seemed to have gotten brighter, which was weird. As I entered the hallway I realised that the light was coming from the living room and frowned since I was sure I had turned off the TV before I left the room and made my way back to it. The first thing I saw when I entered the room was the TV, which was off and glanced to my left to see where the light was coming from and froze when I saw that it was coming from the statue's eyes.

"What the hell…?" I muttered as I slowly walked over to the table and bent over to take a look at the statue, sure enough it's eyes were glowing and whatever the swirling thing inside was, it looked to be the source of the light. As I watched in fascination the statue started to vibrate and bounce slightly on the table as the light seemed to flicker and get brighter. I watched on as the glass container started to crack and cursed under my breath when I realised it was about to break and quickly ducked under the table to avoid the glass when it exploded.

I crawled out from under the table to see that the light was now even brighter than it had been a second ago and decided that running would probably be for the best. I sprinted over to the table and grabbed by phone and my closest coat and put it on as I ran for the door, however just before I reached it I heard a loud crack and turned around in time to see the statue itself crack then shattered and froze in horror as whatever caused the light seemed to expand like an explosion in almost the blink of an eye and envelop me, and then there was nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow didn't realise how many screw ups I had made in that first chapter, sorry about that have done a better of it this time around **

**Thanks for all the reviews, follows and favourites everyone, they make me smile **

**Chapter Two: What the Hell…?**

I wasn't sure exactly how long I was out for but I was aware of something dripping on my face that caused me to snap back to some form of reality. With a great deal of difficulty I opened my eyes and blinked before frowning as I stared up at the grey sky above me, only to blink again when some rainwater went into my eye.

Shaking my head I sat up and realised I was sitting on some grass and snapped my head to from side to side as I glanced around to figure out where the hell I was. Luckily it didn't take me long to realise where I was since anybody who lives in New York recognises Central Park when they see it, although the question was how did I get here from my apartment, which even though you could see the park out of the window was still a good 20+ blocks away.

Glancing down at my body I was relieved to see that I wasn't hurt, which was a plus, however that too was a mystery, in fact none of my clothes were damaged either, which meant that if that wasn't an explosion what the hell was it? Shaking my head I stood up and started heading towards one of the park's exits.

The rain was pouring down pretty heavily which made me thankful that I'd grabbed my long black leather coat on my haste out the door and buttoned it up, to keep me a little dry and slightly warm. It took a good ten minutes to reach the exit and I froze at what I saw.

It was definitely New York and a lot of things were familiar but something's were very, _very _wrong. For one thing I'm pretty sure flying cars didn't exist before I got knocked out and yet there were hundreds of them in this street alone, even some of the clothes people were wearing looked strange and a little bit off and as I slowly walked down the street and turned a corner things got worse.

What I knew used to be a row of small businesses now looked like something out of Blade Runner complete with bright neon signs for advertisements. "What the fu…" I muttered as walked down the street, my head darting from side to side as places I used to know and vividly remember either looked different or just didn't exist anymore.

I could feel my heart thumping in my chest as my panic started to rise, something was very, very wrong here. I started breathing heavier as the tight New York streets and buildings seemed to get even tighter and close in around me, suffocating me almost. Seemingly on instinct I started running, although I didn't know where I was going. My mind blotting out almost everything around me as I tried to run away from my fear and the creepy, screwed up version of the city I loved.

I don't know how long I ran for until I stopped in an alleyway and collapsed against a wall, slowly sliding down it until I was sitting down, with my back against the wall and my knees pulled up to my chest. I folded my arms across my knees and buried my head in them as I started taking deep breaths to calm myself down.

"Okay…okay calm down Rob, there's an easy explanation for this." I muttered "…I can't think of one right now but there has to be one." I heard a loud noise above me and looked up to see another one of those flying car things go over my head.

"Nope, no explanations yet." I muttered as I felt myself starting to panic again and then chuckled as I snapped my fingers "A dream!" I said rather loudly "It's all a dream, a weird dream from…uh…from being knocked out during the explosion…yeah that's gotta be it."

I paused for a moment and looked around "Now all I need to do is wake up…" And so I waited, and waited some more and then just to be safe a little more than that, sadly though I didn't wake up. I glanced down at my arm and with a shrug pinched it, the obvious go to thing anybody does when they think they're asleep and needless to say the pinch hurt, I did it a few more times and even harder than before and still wasn't waking up.

Try as I might I was still in the same alleyway and nothing had changed but that didn't mean I wasn't dreaming, I mean from what I saw that statue exploded so assuming for the moment I wasn't dead I could very well be in a coma, in which case I might be here for a while, although why I would imagine a strange futuristic view of New York and not the normal one was a little odd.

I was brought out of my thought by the sound of a female voice asking me a question.

"Excuse me sir are you alright?" she asked.

Not wanting to appear like a scared fool in front of the woman I put on the best smile I could before I lifted my head.

"I'm fine thanks for ask…"I began before freezing midsentence at who or what or who I saw before me. Because judging by the face and the body I was definitely looking at a woman, even her face looked womanly and even on the beautiful side. However it was the blue skin and head tails that made the rest of her look nothing like a woman, at least not one I knew.

"..ing." I managed to force out after a moment's pause, while trying not to freak out at the freaky looking woman standing in front of me.

"Are you sure?" she asked "You don't seem to be fine."

Now the advantage of being a conman is learning to adapt quickly and at least fake your way through a situation and despite not knowing exactly how well I'd cope with this new situation I was going to give it a go.

"Oh well you know just a bit of a rough day." I said as I stood up "Just needed a moment to uh catch my breath and uh reflect on recent…developments."

The weird alien woman looked at me with a mixture of fear and confusion, not that I cared I as I slowly backed away from…her "Now uh if you'll excuse me I have uh somewhere I need to be." I said with the best smile I could muster "Thanks for your concern."

I spun on my heel and continued walking until I turned a corner in the alley and ignored the person when "she" told me to wait and instead ran to the end of the alley and turned left back onto the street and doing what I do best, blend in.

I didn't bother looking back to see if the freaky alien chick was following me or to see what other people thought, I just kept my head down and moved through the bustle of people and felt a little calmer, since this felt like the New York I knew.

I didn't really pay attention to where I was going for a few blocks as I moved through people and jumped over puddles as the rain continued to pour down on me. However I had to admit that this whole thing was starting to feel very real to me, although how it happened I have no idea, besides the fact that damn statue must have had something to do with it.

Keeping my head down as I walked I put my hands in my pockets and realised that I didn't have any money and looked up to see that I was a long way away from my apartment, or at least what used to be my apartment anyway. Either way I needed some cash, luckily for me that wouldn't be a problem; I'd just have to rely on the kind donations of others like I used to do back in the day.

Straightening up and putting my game face on I started walking with a purpose as my eyes scanned the throngs of people walking by me, looking for the perfect mark and smiled when I saw him just a few paces ahead of me, walking in my direction. I lowered my head slightly and shifted to the left so that I could bump into him as we passed.

Taking one quick glance I relaxed my arm and gently hit his shoulder with mine and looked him in the eye while my right hand dived expertly into his pocket and grabbed whatever was in there.

"Oh I'm so sorry." I said with a smile as I patted him on his opposite shoulder with my left hand to distract him as I removed my right.

The man just grunted and gave a nod as we both continued walking. The whole exchange took less than a second before it was over, with him none the wiser. After taking a few paces and slipping easily back into the masses I glanced down into the palm of my hand with a grin on my face at the fact I'd pulled it off, picking someone's pocket and getting away with it was always fun and one hell of an adrenaline rush.

My smile however was quickly washed away when instead of having money I had what looked to be a handful of tiny computer chips _what the hell is this? _I thought _what kind of idiot carries around computer chips in his pocket? _

However when I looked at them closer I could see little 100's on them, with what appeared to be a greenish/yellow hologram in the centre and frowned, _it can't be…_ I thought _is this…money? _

As I continued walking down the street I saw a person asking for direction from what looked to be a hologram just ahead of me and figured that that might give me some answers. I moved through the crowd and made it to the hologram terminal just as it finished giving directions to the woman in front of me.

"Good afternoon, how may I help you today?" The hologram asked as it looked at me.

"Uh I was wondering if you could tell me the date." I asked.

"Today's date is October 17th 2182."

"2182!" I yelled; causing everybody in the area to turn and look at me as if I was insane…which I suppose from their perspective was understandable. The hologram however started blankly at me as it waited.

"Is there anything else I can help you with today?" it asked.

"No." I muttered in a daze as I walked away and managed to see one of those flying cars just in front of me with the word Taxi writing on the side and with a shrug walked over to it, surprised when the door opened automatically.

I stepped inside and sat down; a little surprised to see that there wasn't a driver. "Please state a destination." A voice said from god only knew where.

"920 West 57th Street." I said and gasped when the thing took off by itself and started flying away. I could only grip the chair as the thing whizzed through traffic, somehow managing to avoid hitting any of the other cars in the process.

"Okay this is in-freaking-sane." I muttered "I mean flying cars, weird blue skinned alien women and the fact that apparently it's 2182. A good 170 years ahead of where I should be…this can't be happening…it just…it just can't be happening, it's impossible." I continued ranting as I watched the city pass me by, a city that was both home and yet at the same time now so alien to me.

For the second or third time I found myself on the verge of a panic attack and took a lot of calming breaths "Okay…given the fact I haven't woken up yet and I'm pretty certain I'm not dead then the only alternative is that somehow, someway this is real, in which case panicking over it won't accomplish much, so what do I do?" I thought aloud as the taxi slowly started to descend.

"We have arrived at your destination; your fare is 135 credits." The voice said.

"Uh…thanks." I muttered as I pulled out the computer chips I assumed were credits and dropped some into the slot, breathing a sigh of relief when it accepted them and gave me back some change.

"Thank you, have a pleasant day."

"Well it hasn't been so far." I muttered as I got out of the cab and looked up at what used to be my apartment building, which looked a lot newer and was now apparently a hotel. With a shrug I stepped through the doors and into the foyer.

"Hello sir." The receptionist smiled at me from behind her desk "Welcome to the Winchester hotel, home to one of New York's most famous conspiracy theories."

I arched my eyebrow "Conspiracy theory?" I asked.

"Oh yes, there was an explosion here about 170 years ago, it was in the news for a long time, it took out an entire floor of the building and nobody knows why."

"You don't say." I muttered.

"Oh yes, the police investigated and ruled it an accident. It was shortly after that that the rumours started."

"What kind of rumours?"

"Oh there were many, some claimed that it was a homemade drug lab and that it was an explosion caused by some chemicals, others said that it was a hideout for a spy and that a rival country blew it up in an assassination attempt and there were a few who said that it was a secret government laboratory and an experimental piece of technology malfunctioned." The receptionist replied with a huge smile.

"What made all these rumours begin?" I asked "I mean if anything it was a faulty gas line or something."

"That's just it." The woman beamed "The fire department checked all of that, everything was fine and any other type of fault would have caused damage to other floors, but there was no other damage. It was all contained to the single apartment on that floor."

"That's impossible, if the explosion was as big as you claim then it would have blown at least the ceiling and floors of the apartment above and below it." I replied.

"Exactly, but it didn't. The only explanation was that it was some new kind of government explosive, they denied it of course and so the conspiracy was born."

I nodded and put on a fake smile "And then somebody decided to turn the place into a hotel and cash in on it."

The receptionist shrugged her shoulders "People love a good mystery, even today."

"So what about the person who lived in the apartment at the time? Didn't anybody have to say anything about him?" I asked.

"Of course, which only added to the conspiracy, the people who lived in the building either didn't know him or said that he was a young man in his early twenties and yet had a lot of money, fancy clothes, artwork far more than someone of his age should have been able to afford, since nobody ever came forward about the apartment and with no evidence it was assumed that he was killed in the explosion."

I nodded but remained silent as I looked around the foyer "We have a painting of him if you'd like to see it, half of the mystery involves him."

"Uh…sure." I replied hesitantly as the woman stood up from behind the desk and waved at me to follow her. She led me down the hallway until she stopped in front of a large painting. I looked up at it and frowned.

_It doesn't look anything like me _I thought _Guess that's a good thing really _"Any idea who he is?"

"His name was Franklin Parker, but other than that nobody knows anything about him, which only adds to the mystery."

I nodded _Ah poor Franklin, may he rest in peace _I thought with a chuckle, glad that I hadn't settled down enough to use my real name when I'd brought the apartment.

"So out of curiosity how much does a room cost here?"

"It's 1,200 credits a night."

I laughed "That's a little out of my price range for now, but thanks for the story it was…interesting."

"You're welcome." The receptionist replied as she made her way back to her desk. I took one last look at the inaccurate portrait of me and left with a shake of my head.

Back out on the street I looked around and for the first time realised I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with myself, obviously I'd need money and a place to stay and I'd need to find out more about what this new future was like and catch up on 170 years' worth of history as it were. The history stuff was easy, but getting enough money to rent a place would require a little more than simple pickpocketing and I had no idea where people like me would go to find work in this New York.

Deciding to do a little homework first I spotted a taxi request terminal and pressed it, smiling when one appeared from around the corner and landed in front of me and got inside.

"Please state your destination."

"The New York Public Library." I requested and settled back, curious to find out just what this new world was like.


End file.
